Chance Meeting
by JediHanyou
Summary: One-Shot: Inuyasha CROSSOVER with FullMetal Alchemist and Tsubasa/xxxHolic. A chance meeting briefly brings inhabitants of three vastly different worlds together; hard lessons must be learned, but will they be heeded? Edited 4/22/08.


**Chance Meeting**

"Umm… Ed? Where are we?"

"Well, we're definitely not in Central anymore… I could've sworn I got the transmutation circle right this time…"

Al took off his head and reached inside his chest cavity. He removed a battered book and flipped to a bookmarked page. "No, brother… this diagram says 'Transportation Circle'…"

"WHAT?!" Edward Elric's shriek echoed through the still woods. A flock of sparrows nearby took off in alarm.

"Well, we just need to go back, right?"

"Sigh. It's not that simple, Al."

"Why not?"

"I only just got us here in one piece! What if I screw up again and we end up in some sort of weird limbo?"

A strange vision of his diminutive brother easily winning such a contest flickered through Al's metal head. "Definitely wouldn't want that."

"Perhaps I can help."

Ed whirled, arms raised in a defensive posture. "Who are you?"

A young woman garbed in a white tunic and blood-red dress stood before him. Ed's amber eyes briefly flicked from the bow strapped to her back to her long black hair (tied with a simple cloth) and back to her eerily beautiful face.

"My name is not important." The woman slowly strode towards the two brothers. "You do not belong in this world. Then again," she laughed bitterly, "neither do I."

"What do you mean by that, ma'am?" inquired Alphonse.

"It is none of your concern…" she stopped short and gasped.

"What?" snapped Ed. _Dammit… I just know she's gonna say something like, "You looked taller from back there."_

"Your eyes… they remind me… of someone…" she smiled sadly.

_Didn't see that one coming…_ "Yeah. Whatever. So, can you help us get back? We're kinda busy."

"Everyone is busy… what is this matter that presses you so?"

"We need to get our real bodies back." Ed pulled up his sleeve and pant leg while Al removed his head and waved with his free hand.

"It must have been a powerful magic that did that to you."

"Not magic… the science of Alchemy!" Ed proclaimed proudly. "I'm Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. And this is my little brother, Alphonse."

"Hello."

"Your _little_ brother?"

_I knew it was gonna happen sooner or later…_ "Yeah, I had to seal his soul to that suit of armor to keep it from being dragged into the void. Literally cost me an arm and a leg."

"The void? You have met the monk Miroku?"

"Umm… no… I don't think so… we were trying to bring our mother back from the dead, you see, and… well, it didn't work. We ended up creating a horrible, not-quite-human creature called a homunculus."

"I see. I suppose it is true no matter what world you come from, then. The dead can never truly return to life."

"What do you mean by that, ma'am?"

"Come with me." She walked off, ignoring his question.

xxxxx

Twenty minutes later, Ed and Al beheld an ancient wooden well on a small hilltop.

"Cast your magic with the well at the center. You may be able to return home."

"What makes you think that?" inquired Ed as he sniffed the well. _It's just a dry well…_

"Just trust me."

In short order, Ed and Al reconstructed the circle that brought them to this strange green world.

"Remember, do **not** come back here again. Your magic may not work a second time."

"I understand. We're sorry to have intruded."

"It was clearly not your intention to do so. May you regain the bodies you have lost."

Ed clapped his hands and placed them on the edge of the circle.

Nothing happened.

"Dammit! What's wrong?"

"Maybe Alchemy doesn't work here, brother…"

"I suppose I must intervene, then," said the woman. She closed her eyes briefly, and a portal opened up in the sky.

"Great, thanks, lady!" shouted Ed, running at full tilt.

"Can I help you?" The appearance of a dark-haired woman in the portal startled him.

"Ed! It's Lust! No, not quite… looks a bit like her, though…" Al scratched his head.

The woman in the portal smiled. "Oh, it's you two again… still haven't learned your lesson, have you?"

"WHAT?" Ed was about to rant when their guide interrupted.

"Yuko, I have a favor to ask."

"You know I don't grant favors… only wishes."

"Yeah, right," scoffed Ed. "If you can, then how about bringing back our dead mother?"

"You can't afford it."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Each wish has a price that must be paid, young man. A price equal in value to the wish."

"Brother, that sounds just like the Law of Equivalent Exchange!"

The woman with the bow interrupted Alphonse. "It is my wish that they be returned to their own world."

"A very big wish indeed. What do you offer in exchange?"

"You can have this," remarked Ed, lazily dangling his watch. "It's…"

"Useless to me. Besides, don't you still need it?" The woman narrowed her eyes.

_Does she know what I've written inside?_ Ed thought with a jolt of fear.

"We don't have anything else but these books, ma'am…" Al held up a sizeable stack.

"No thanks. I already have the original manuscripts." Ed's jaw dropped.

"Will this work?" The woman with the bow held out her cupped hands.

Yuko's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure you wish to part with it?"

"Yes, I owe these young men." Ed and Al exchanged confused looks.

"The price is acceptable," Yuko said. She stretched out her palm, and as Ed and Al watched, small pieces of… something… flew from their mysterious benefactor's hands through the portal. "Now, then…" Yuko closed her eyes and murmured briefly, and the pieces resolved themselves into a small seashell. "On the house. I thought you'd like to see it whole again one last time."

"It's not necessary," the woman shook her head. "One last time always begets another, in my experience. But thank you for the thought." Turning to Ed and Al, she bowed deeply. "Thank you. I now know what I must do."

"Ehm… sure… you're welcome," Ed managed to stammer, rubbing the back of his head with his left hand.

_He always gets a little shy around attractive women… except Winry, for some reason… _"Just what did we do for you?" Al asked the beauty with the bow.

But she just shook her head and smiled. "It's time for you to go home now. Yuko?"

Yuko opened her eyes wide, and the opening of the well began to glow. "You must go now," she warned before her own portal vanished without a trace.

Ed and Al crouched on the rim of the well. Ed hopped in without a backward glance, but Al lingered for a moment before following. "Ma'am… you never even told us your name. What is it?"

She smiled. "Tell your impatient brother that my name is Kikyo."

xxxxx

As Al followed his brother down the well, Kikyo stood in silent contemplation. _It's better this way. I really do wish he could have seen me wearing the makeup he gave me… just once._ She shook her head to dismiss that train of thought. _It's clear to me now. Inuyasha cannot be mine… even though I will always be his._

Her musings were interrupted by another flash from the well. Her spiritual powers detected her love's aura rapidly approaching from the village in response. _Time for me to bow out._ She vanished into the trees as a young girl in a green miniskirt hauled herself out of the well.

Kikyo watched invisibly as Inuyasha sniffed the air around the well. She watched as her reincarnation chided her love for always having "that dead girl" on the brain. She watched them depart to resume their quest together.

"Well," she whispered to herself. "Maybe I'll see him one more time…"


End file.
